Patal lok generally means under the sea. It is the bottommost realm in Hindu cosmology!
It begins with the very famous story of the great king Mahabali!
Mahabali was a very generous and benevolent king for his people. He was the grandson of Prahlada! He used to govern his kingdom with absolute devotion and without any discrimination. His people used to treasure his reign over them. He had also possessed the Amrita, which permitted his subjects to bring him back to life once he died in a war. He is immortal, and it is also believed that in the next yuga, King Mahabali will be the king of heaven!
Yuga: In layperson language, it means a time period!
So, the suras (devtas) approached lord Vishnu to save them from this obliteration. Lord Vishnu then incarnated as a Vamana ( a dwarf Brahmin avatar). While Mahabali performed the Ashvamedha sacrifice to commemorate his victories, Vamana approached him and requested about 3 quarters of land. As known, Mahabali was generous; he quickly…
Now, in one of the podcasts of Nilesh Oak, he clarified that since Mahabali was a very well-loved and respected king for his kingdom, Vamana couldn’t just banish him away or kill him, so King Bali was positioned under house arrest in that region which is somewhat recalled as Indonesia. So Vamana had subdued King Bali, and all his rights were revoked from him. But after the house arrest was halted, King Bali didn’t return to his kingdom. Lord Vishnu offered King Bali to be the next lord Indra if he settled into the Patal lok and performed yagnas. So, Mahabali kept treading further down to Patal Lok. He took precisely the identical path described in Ramayana as the path taken by Sugreeva.
Source credits:
https://medium.com/@aashima.sharma2003/tracing-ramayanas-footprints-the-mythic-journey-in-south-america-3d37f168ed91
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